10 July 2017

SEOUL, July 7 (Yonhap) -- The leaders of South Korea and Japan agreed Friday to improve the countries' relations, currently at a low ebb over history issues, while intensifying their joint efforts to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue peacefully, South Korea's presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also agreed to restart summit diplomacy.

"The leaders of the two countries agreed to resume shuttle diplomacy between the countries' leaders, noting their close communication was important for the development of the countries' bilateral relations," Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Park Soo-hyun said in a press release.

The two met in a bilateral summit held on the sidelines of the Group of 20 meeting in Hamburg, Germany.

It followed North Korea's test launch of what it claimed to be an intercontinental ballistic missile, greatly raising tensions and prompting fresh condemnation from Seoul and its allies, including the United States.

Pyongyang is prohibited by U.N. Security Council resolutions from developing nuclear weapons or means of their delivery.

The latest missile launch on Tuesday marked the sixth of its kind since the new South Korean president took office in May.

Moon and Abe noted the missile launch was a "very urgent and serious provocation," Park said at a press briefing in Hamburg, according to Cheong Wa Dae.